I went to work this morning for a few hours since we weren't going to leave for New Mexico until the early afternoon. That's right: it's time for the annual family vacation. :) I work at an inner city ministry called City Church. It was fun like always, although a little sad since everyone knew that this was the last day of VBS for the summer.
The biggest incident of the day was when a little girl climbed halfway up the wall, realized that she was afraid of heights, and got stuck. This is not too unusual; occasionally, a child will refuse to come down the wall and we will have to send someone up after them. This little girl was an extreme case. She began to wail and cry, and if that wasn't bad enough, she actually worked herself up so much that she vomited while hanging onto the wall. Another little girl that was climbing on the other side of the wall wouldn't come down for a good five minutes either, so we couldn't send anyone up after them. We were all relieved when we got both girls down to safety.
I led worship like I have been doing all week, but the stereo system wasn't set up today, so I had to think up some good acappella songs to which I knew the hand motions. I attempted to lead Big House, Lord's Army, and Father Abraham. The kids actually seemed to have a better time laughing at me trying to sing loud enough for all 150 of them to hear me than they did doing actual worship earlier this week.
After City Church, I went home. My family piled into our mini-van and began the four and a half hour drive to New Mexico. My brother, Luke, had to pee every hour, so we made a lot of stops, but we eventually arrived at our destination.
Our resort is called Tamaya, pronounced Tah-meh-YAH. It's located in a beautiful setting, amongst desert and red rock. It's positioned right beside a tall, blue mountain. The skies around us are filled with clouds, so it isn't too hot. The temperature is perfect.
On the way down from our hotel room to dinner, we stopped at the spa so Mom could make some appointments for her and Amy and me. I've never been to anything like a spa before, so I was a little excited. We were going to spend all of tomorrow morning relaxing and having treatments. We were trying to figure out which treatments we all wanted, but when I saw the prices for each activity, I couldn't help it. My mind flashed to images of kids in Africa dressed in rags, wondering when they would get their next meal. And here I was, ready to spend a couple hundred dollars on a massage. I started to cry a little. I was ashamed of my uncommon display of tears, but I was even more ashamed of what I was about to do.
I felt sweet Luke's hand creep around my shoulder, rubbing my back in a comforting way. He eventually wrapped his arms around me in an embrace. "It'll be okay, Emily," he whispered. He is so sweet. Whose nearly eleven-year-old brother will give them a big hug in public?
During dinner, I talked to my parents some more about the guilt that I felt, and they explained that even though we would be relaxing and having a good time, we were still helping to pay someone's salary during a difficult recession. I thought about that for a while. I think I'll probably go to the spa for a little while tomorrow.
The beds here are tiny. I have to share one with Amy, my sister, and she kicks! I'm kind of dreading going to sleep, but I've had a long day. I'll write more tomorrow.
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